Fiona Apple, Planes, and Daydreams

This one's mostly going to be a stream-of-consciousness post because, well, I'm bored, so I'll talk about everything and anything that's on my mind.

Basically, I've spent an hour or so watching Fiona Apple videos. And this isn't the first time. She just fascinates me for some reason. Well, I know for what reason. Basically, she's known for being a little off her block, but in a sense, I believe she's one of the most sane people in show business. She knows the whole thing is a farce, she knows it's all fake.

Part of the reason she's "crazy" is for her 1997 MTV awards speech. There were a few outlandish comments like "This world is bulls**t", but essentially what she said is for everybody to not pay attention to what stars are telling you is cool and to make your own path. Psycho, right?

One of the most intriguing interviews with her is on the Howard Stern Show in 1997. First off, Stern is a pig, constantly pointing out how "messed up" and "troubled" she is, even asking her what it was like to be raped at 11, but she totally takes it in stride. It's impossible not to be impressed by how mature the 19-year old is. Sometimes people mistake a lack of child-like naivety for being troubled. Apple displays an ability to see the hypocrisies and injustices in everything, and how much of life itself is theatrical. I feel like she and Dostoevsky would be friends. "Everybody's messed up" she says (Part 1, 1:14), and it's true. The problem is that when people are honest about their insecurities and how they see the world, it tends to come off as crazy. Most of Hollywood tries to keep that part private, and understandably so as there's media ready to pounce at any mistake or flaw. But what will strike you about Apple is how she doesn't feign excitement or perkiness in any interview she does. There's nothing fake about her, she's genuine in everything she says.

I won't declare Apple a victim of Hollywood however, but rather her reputation is the victim. She's pointed out herself in an interview with Craig Ferguson in 2006 that the ugliness of the people that are negative towards her gets processed through her and comes out as something beautiful. How strong is that? And how lucky are we to receive the benefits from that?

Unsurprisingly, this ends with me buying her music.

In other news, I went to the EAA Airventure yesterday. First of all, it was great to get a day-off from my soul-sucking job. It seemed like we missed a couple opportunities because we were a step behind, but it was still an awesome time. The biggest attraction was the A380, the largest passenger plane in the world. Unfortunately, we got in line to view the inside just as they closed it, but it was still a sight to see from the outside. Now, the A380 is an Airbus, which is the competitor for Boeing, who employs my uncle. Basically, Airbus has a far worse disaster record than Boeing, as many of their parts are cheaper and made of less strong material (read: plastic). However, this plane is pretty awesome. The pilot was a regular Evil Knievel. During its demonstration, he had the plane climbing and turning at angles that seemed like they should make the plane stall out or flip (Actual video of what I saw). Basically, it looked like it was doing things passenger planes should not do. He also pulled the plane back to low speed, even putting down it's landing gear, and it almost looked like a Harrier, just floating in the air.

The underbelly
Originally uploaded by ntdlosangeles

The other pretty cool attraction was the WhiteKnightTwo. It's a crazy plane, with two cabins, designed to launch Virgin's SpaceShipTwo into space. The SST will take customers into space for the low low price of 100,000 to 200,000 dollars. Anyway, the fly-by was mostly just interesting because you thought to youself, "How does that not snap in half?". You also could barely hear it. But another cool thing to note about the plane was the paint job on the bottom, which showed the evolution of flight on the bottom of the cabins. It showed what I believed were, in order, Icarus, The Wright Flyer, the Spirit of Saint Louis, Chuck Yeager's X-1, the Boeing 747, the Apollo Eagle landing craft, and the SST.

For the last couple years my father and grandfather had tried to get me to go on a 1929 Ford Tri-Motor flight, which you can do for just over $50 at the Airventure. I used to refuse because the thing looks like it's made of cardboard, but over the years I've become less afraid of death. So yesterday I finally accepted the challenge. However, we got to the stand as they were booking the last flight, and I was #11 in line for a flight of nine people. All in all the Airventure was tons of fun, though.

Finally, to totally switch subjects, I've been daydreaming a lot, and here are some of a few of the daydreams I've had lately. First, I imagined myself winning the lottery and starting a record label. I was thinking about the bands I would sign. Three came to mind. Obviously, I'm a huge The Velvet Teen fan. Their record label, Slowdance, recently folded in the middle of them recording a new album. I don't know what they have in the works, but I'm hoping they'll still be able to release their album soon. Secondly, I would sign St. Sat B, who is a band from New Jersey that I communicate with often. It's surprising that somebody hasn't knocked on their door yet, considering how talented of a songwriter Jimmy Francis is and how great their sound is. Finally, I'd sign my friend Nick Miller, who is a talented solo artist with the voice of an angel. Check out all three of them.

My other daydream was of becoming a author. I'm going to school to become a history teacher, but I'd love to work on a work of fiction on the side. I used to do a lot of creative writing when I was a kid, just for fun. Back then my influence was Matt Christopher, and I wrote stories about hockey. I had a 20-ish page story called "Skating from the Law" published in my middle school's collection of works that followed a promising juniors player whose unknowingly drugged at Prom, resulting in a car crash that leads to his arrest. Anywho, I haven't written creatively since the sequel to that story, and I'd like to try my hand at writing a novel. I've often thought that if I ever become homeless and have nothing left to lose, that would be my backup plan.

Okay, this post is long enough. On to music. Basically, this song has helped to make me happy because you can't listen to it without singing along and wanting to dance. I've been in a nostalgic phase lately, and this song screams nostalgia. Plus some of the lyrics are so witty you don't know what to do with yourself. "If you're bored, then you're boring".

Harvey Danger "Flagpole Sitta"

Flagpole Sitta @ Yahoo! Video